Wild Bill

Well, not that it changes anything about the right of an adult citizen to make his own choices but who makes the decisions about what's harmful? Obviously, on this issue you've decided passive smoke is dangerous to children and that an open window doesn't work. How you figure that a lingering smell is scientific evidence is beyond me. I would imagine most smokers light up in their cars when they DON"T have their kids with them! Why would they worry about opening the window just for themselves? If my neighbour wants to tell me what to do, then I would like the chance to return the favour. If it becomes a popularity contest with everyone else in town feeling qualified to enforce their opinion then it's time for me to find another town. This attitude is a slippery slope. There HAVE been calls to put fat and out of shape patients to the end of the line in Ontario! Also "dangerous" sports like parachuting or downhill skiing. The reason given is usually that health care resources are at a premium so why waste it on those to lazy to look after their own health? Actually, I can see some logic in this philosophy but I'm bothered by just one thing. In Canada it's ILLEGAL to make your own payment arrangements for health care! In effect, people of this persuasion are saying that they have the right to deny care to those who they feel are not doing what they're told as regards to their personal health because it costs all of us! Even though we're not allowed to pay direct or for some other insurance. Seems kind of a smarmy attitude, to me. Where will we end up? Everyone in front of a scanner every morning, doing Winston Smith's "jerks"? I'm not saying there's no argument to protecting children or the health of your neighbours from your own actions. I'm just saying that from what I've seen these past few years there are a lot of people just leaping at the chance to make their neighbour do what they say! It goes to character, and it's NOT pretty!

There is nothing so popular as telling your neighbour what to do! Except maybe making him pay for YOUR "great" idea! Anti-tobacco folks are perhaps the worst example of this trend. The power has gone to their head and their true character has been revealed. The cure is worse than the disease! What group is next? BTW, I am NOT a smoker! I just respect my fellow man to much to tell him what to do.

You should learn some basic science, starting with Bernouli's Principle. You could be right only if the car wasn't moving. Air moving past a window opening creates a low pressure area. Air moves from higher to low pressure areas. It can't help it! Physics doesn't care about being politically correct.

If you'll pardon a poor choice of words, you're dead wrong! Chuck was not the sort of man who would've got up from his death bed just to wreak revenge on the Tories. He went to Ottawa because he was the MP for his riding! It was his job and from all that I knew and heard about him he took his duties seriously. He was quoted as saying quite emphatically that he voted with the Liberals (who were in power! A loss for their motion would have meant the Liberal government would have fallen and we would have had an election. It was common knowledge that the Liberals were NOT confident enough at the time to want an election! Too much scandal!) for one simple reason. It was what his constituents wanted! I realize that this may be a hard concept for many folks to comprehend, particularly Liberals! Cadman came from the very bedrock of the Reform Party. One of their strongest principles was the idea that an MP was supposed to get a handle on what the majority of his constituents wanted, whether by formal plebescites, emails/telephone calls or even just walking around and talking to people, if his riding was small enough. He then should vote as THEY wished, regardless of the party line! If Chuck had felt that his citizens wanted to support the Conservative position then he would have cast his lot with them instead. I don't believe that he gave a damn what any party might have offered him! Harper would have known Cadman quite well and I believe that's why on the tape we hear Harper telling the others that they could try but he believed Cadman had already made up his mind, implying that they were wasting their time with such a man. You should understand that all a Conservative vote from Cadman would have done was trigger an election, giving the Tories a chance to overturn the Martin Liberals while they were mired in scandal. Polls consistently show that usually Canadians don't want such elections, considering them unnecessary. Look at the polls today! It may be important to an Opposition Party to trigger an election, or for a minority government to try for a majority win but most Canadians want them to pipe down and just keep working for at least a few years. All this partisan talk and no one seems to understand not only that Cadman was a man of integrity but that Harper knew it! One of the two who talked to Cadman was Tom Flanagan, another man of integrity. He would have been as likely to do something illegal as Preston Manning! These people were all very different from Mulroney. The Reform Party was founded in part to slay and bury the old Tory party! They were also nothing like the usual Liberal leaders and back room boys either. I'm not saying that it was impossible, but if you knew anything about those people and their party at the time you'd find all these attacks as probable as an Amish community being behind a vulgar Gay Pride parade! You'd be a fool to bet your paycheck. All this gutter sniping is coming from a Liberal party terrified to face the electorate at the polls. If they think they are so right and holy then let them stop abdicating their role as the Opposition and vote the government down. If they won't stand behind their convictions then they stand for nothing. No wonder my paper a few days ago referred to them as a "brokerage party" that has no real principles but just tries to get in front of every parade and hands out bread and circuses!

This is fascinating and useful info on geo-thermal and heat pumps! Still, I live on a typical 50x100 ft lot in the city, with my house plunked in the middle. I haven't seen any schemes useful to get someone like me off grid, in a cost-effective manner. I can't lay pipe in my back yard. I don't think my neighbours would appreciate a big wind turbine in the backyard. The house is old and you can only do so much with retro-fit insulation. As has been pointed out, you would like to stay out of the poor house after ponying up for the initial installation costs and also live long enough to get some payback. One ray of hope, however. Perhaps someone better informed like jdobbin might care to comment. When my home was built in 1949 its water came from a buried well. A decade or so later the city expanded outward and the home was hooked to city water and sewers. I know from the patched holes in my basement walls that the well is just out front of my house, buried a few feet down. Is it possible and practical to use well water to drive a heat pump? After all, it should also be warmer than winter air and cooler than that of summer. Are there manufacturers catering to this application? Would it be practical for DIY? If this was a practical thing to do I'm sure there are countless homeowners in the same situation.

Seems to me that it's always the losers who start crying about voter turnout being poor! It's as if they're trying to imply that if 60% hadn't stayed home they would have ALL been voting for THEM! This is not only illogical but frankly absurd!

All generalizations are flawed, including this one! That being said, I've pondered this very question for more than 40 years now. I've come to the conclusion that some folks are heart people and some lead with their head. By this I mean not that some folks are cold "Mr. Spock" characters but rather that a lot of folks are more emotional and intuitive in their judgements, rather than logical. These are the type of people that if caught in a leaky, sinking lifeboat would start championing the right of everyone to a turn on a dry seat before considering finding out who's best at bailing! There's an old joke about Canadian politics: A man is drowning 60 feet from shore. A Tory sees him and tosses him a 50 foot rope, telling him to make an effort for that last 10 feet. An NDP supporter takes a rope away from another drowning man, telling him "You seem to be a good enough swimmer on your own!" A Liberal throws him a 60 foot rope but when the man is almost at the shore the Liberal drops his end and rushes off to do another good deed! To a heart person politics is a faith rather than a reasoned choice. They've made an assumption that only Liberals are caring people and that others are right wing because "they like to be cruel". It's a religion, plain and simple. If your choice is on the side of the angels you don't have to answer nasty conflicting reason or evidence. You've got faith! It's just Satan(Harper) testing you! This is not to be confused with basic intelligence. There have been many brilliant theologians down through history that could write Jesuit level arguments, all spun not from proven fact but from first accepting their religion as an article of faith. Logic is only a tool in that you can logically prove anything as long as you only deal with data that supports your argument, whether because that's all you have or that's all you choose to see. Being Liberal makes this type of personality feel like a "good person". It also lends to some delicious righteousness, slamming all opposition as "mean-spirited" if not outright evil! That's why we keep going round and round on issues like the Liberal gun registry. A Tory argues in terms of effectiveness, costs and results. A Liberal believes you should support the registry to show you CARE about DOING SOMETHING! The converse of course is that if you are against that registry then you mustn't care! The idea of "Does it actually accomplish the goal?" is beyond their comprehension. "Caring" people will forgive anything, but only with people on their "side". People still gave money to Jim Bakker and Tammy Fae after their fall from grace. Hillary picked up some electoral votes after she cried in public. Liberals forgive Shawinigate and HDRC but condemn a Preston Manning for a dry cleaning bill. P T Barnum said it long ago: "Makers, takers and fakers. There are no other kinds!" This should spark some flame!

Ignore the topic? Well, you'll just have to pardon us, chauchee. You see, you got boring! This might come as a surprise, but it's NOT all about YOU! This is a free forum. People will interact with you if they feel like it. Spark their interest and they may talk. Bore them and they'll switch to something else. Be overly obnoxious and they can go to the control panel and put you on their "ignore" list. They will no longer even see your words! It's called freedom of thought! You respect others and they'll respect you. That's the greatest thing about the Internet. You can vote with your feet.

Did I miss something? I admit that I'm far from her demographic. I'm an old "geezer rock" guy. You know, one of those who at the SARS concert in Toronto threw water bottles at Justin Timberlake for having such a pop suck up there with real rock stars. Anyhow, I suffered through the entire Ellen video for you. First time I ever saw anything from her show. I'd just as soon watch "The View", which means of course, not at all! While watching I was about as bored as when I have to accompany my wife on a shopping trip. I never saw anything to show that Ms. Aguilera can play guitar! Did I miss it?

Is that because a wet beer will be TOO wet after all the tears falling into it?

Well, in a marketing sense you are absolutely right! Still, although I'm considered kinda right wing I still have enough old hippy in me that I just can't participate in inaccurate hype! My business is Busens, not Ms. Aguilera's butt, however shapely. Ms. Raitt is a musician. She plays her own instruments. She could make one of my amplifiers sing! In keeping with the theme of these forums, if I wanted to fake it I'd be a Liberal!

Well...not really! While I love her 1940's Andrews Sisters style video she is a singer and a dancer. I've never heard of her actually playing a guitar. Ms. Raitt however is recognized as one of the finest blues slide guitar players EVER! To these old eyes Ms Aguilera might be cute but Bonnie Raitt inspires deep, abiding love!

Bonnie Raitt? I'd love to have her play one of my amplifiers! You see, there's a story here. Years ago I hadn't yet started building amps professionally. My builds were always for personal use or for friends and I never cared much about putting effort into the cosmetics. As long as they worked well I didn't fuss with making them "pretty". So one day I got hankering to make a project as pretty and professional looking as possible. While my solder skills are fine I've never been that artistic. I need my wife to not only pick my ties but match my socks! So I went to a longtime friend who is quite the craftsman and asked him for help and education with the "pretty" aspects. This meant many evenings in his basement workshop. One evening he asked me if I had chosen a name for my amps. I told him that it was just a hobby but he pointed out you could never know where things might end up. He asked if there was anything the name should suggest. I told him that was easy. Guitarists wanted their amps to have "balls!", suggesting power and testosterone. He thought for a bit, smiled and suggested "Busen Amps". His parents had come from Germany and he said that "busen" was German for balls. "Sounds good to me!" I said. So we lettered "Busen" on the amp. A year and a half or so later we had done at least half a dozen amp projects, each labeled "Busen Amps." One night while my buddy was tinkering with something I had a brain freeze (I get them a lot since my kids were born!) and coudn't remember if "Busen" had one "s" or two. Rather than interrupt him I picked up a German-English dictionary from his desk and leafed through it for myself. "Hey Mike!", I said. "Looka here! We got it wrong! Busen doesn't mean balls. It means BOOBS!" He looked at me and then burst out laughing, so hard he fell off his stool! Only a close friend would set you up with a joke and wait over 18 months for you to get hit with it! After so many amps already built I had a legacy so I didn't fight it. When I went fulltime I formally registered the name! Most players have no idea of the meaning of the name but I've always thought that if I'm stuck with it I should contact someone like Ms Raitt for an endorsement!

$5 will get you $10 that he needs (and gets!) a big grant of PINK money to have it published!

Absolutely! A pox on ALL their houses! It's not that the Tories are also dishonest. It's the holier-than-thou hypocrisy of the Liberals over it that is most repugnant!

Are they? You don't think that ol' Sol's output has even a teeny bit to do with it? We have evidence of global warming on Mars, which has mice nuts worth of atmosphere. So even if those little green guys are driving SUV's that all need ring and valve jobs you'd think that atmosphere is not the major factor. I'm a long time science guy. My first book in Grade 1 was a science tech. I make no claims of being as educated as a Stephen Hawking but my perspective gives me a strong feeling that over the next 5-6 years a lot of Al Gore type folks are going to be very, very embarrassed. Mother Nature doesn't care about your politics. She runs by her own rules and science is how we find out how she does things. Just because there's a "consensus" of agreement (mostly by white coats dependent on government money to feed their kids or poli-sci refugees from schools like Queens or Ryerson) it doesn't mean squat in reality. There have been many other issues where most folks believed something that turned out to be totally half-baked. At least today we just cut the grant money to "deniers", rather than burning them. I hope I live long enough. I'd love to see if Suzuki or Gore are men enough to admit they were wrong. One thing's for sure, if the Liberals return to power and cause any job losses over climate change that turn out to have been unnecessary they may not be back in power for generations! In politics as well as pool you should do more than just take the cheap shot. You should consider the shape you leave on the ball.

"Whoa, Belinda! Put the coffee on!" - sung (I think!) by Ian Thomas. Or was it Ray Materek. Anyhow, it was certainly Belinda Stronach! In life as well as politics the Golden Rule is: "Do unto others as they have done unto you!"

Maybe, but the problem is that would give us Dion! From bad to worse! Frying pan or fire. We're doomed!

COUNTRY!!! You couldn't possibly be more wrong about where I come from! Pow wow beat and hiphop? Maybe. One's as braindead as the other. If you can't sing and you can't play and you can't write anything but simple ABAB rhymes, then you rap! If I want to hear decent native musicianship I listen to Derek Miller or Robbie Robertson with The Band! If you prefer pow wow hiphop then no wonder you've got problems! Give me a break! Maybe the Wiggles IS your speed!

You're wasting your time, RW! A dyed in the wool Liberal would excuse Charlie Manson if he belonged to their party! I still remember when Chretien was mired in the HRDC billion dollar scandal, Shawinigate and a few others. Someone picked up on the fact that one of Preston Manning's dry cleaning bills had been paid by his party when it should have been considered personal. Every CBC and Liberal talking head in the media seemed to feel that the act was equivalent! The Liberals are obviously hoping this will give them a chance in the soon-to-be-called election. Maybe so. Doesn't seem likely that most Canadians will care enough to switch to a leader like Dion but stranger things have happened. Might get a seat or two. I'll bet 3 beer that if the Cadman story is true the guys who made the offer came from the old PC party! If so, Harper and his crew deserve whatever they get.

Not very likely! Most Canadians expect their politicians to be crooked, at least to some degree. The important thing is if they are crooked with things that involve mainly themselves or are trivial. This is why Adscam hit the Liberals so hard. This wasn't a nomination bribe or fix, or rigging a contract for your brother-in-law's company. It was directly stealing our tax money! It was just too blatant and personal for so many Canadians. The NDP will never achieve a federal government in Canada until they undergo a dramatic change in their philosophy. Right now most Canadians see them as the party of impractical dreams, with approaches that come from the heart and not the head. They can be a good conscience but never produce something that works. The NDP might come up with the most environmentally friendly colour to paint a bridge, but you'd be a fool to trust driving your car across if they had built it! They are the party of the "artsies" and not the "engineers". We need "artsies". They teach us WHY and HOW to enjoy life and how to keep a human heart! Like your flaky aunt who everyone loves but they know better than to ask for help with math or science homework. The federal NDP has only themselves to blame for this perception. It is the party of Marilyn Churley, not Mike Holmes of "Holmes on Homes". Many other labour parties in the western world modernized over the past few decades. Consider the success of Tony Blair in Britain. Or even provincial parties like in Manitoba! The federal NDP had their big chance to evolve in the 80's with their own Laxer Report and chose to turn their backs on it. It's just human nature to accept a leader who's a bit of a crook as long as your garbage is always picked up and your road is plowed. The NDP just hasn't inspired confidence in the nuts and bolts of governing. IMHO, of course.

You know, if there's an investigation it should also cover whatever the LIBERALS offered to get him to side with them!

Promo the Robot? Adam Keefe on Friday Nite Fright Nite? "I'm a'comin', Beany Boy!" "Yank, Doodle, Dan and Dee, of the American Eagles Squadron!" And when they hit their teens: "Georgie Tyrebiter. Porgy and Mudhead. Reebus Kneebus." Ah, nostalgia isn't what it used to be!

Gord Almighty! "N'Sync" for pre-schoolers! Is there no limit to commercial exploitation? What's next, ABBA tribute bands for the neo-natal preemies? With my daughters, we taped small speakers to my wife's belly and fed them a steady diet of George Thorogood, B B King and the odd old piece of FireSign Theater vinyl while they were developing in the womb. Today they are almost 18 and 12. They both are tops in their class at school and have always despised Britney Spears and all their ilk. I couldn't keep them from listening to the Spice Girls when they were hot, I admit. Still, I'm not sure that would have been possible anyway.

Sadly, anyone who assumes cops are ALWAYS "civilized" is naive to an extreme! I've had bad experiences myself. Cops are human beings like anyone else. There are good ones and bad ones. The problem is a bad cop has more ability to commit negative actions.